21 Years
by Herascat
Summary: Swan Queen Week Day 6: Alternate Curse AU


Swan Queen Week Day 6: Alternate Curse AU Another late one, I decided anything I did for day 5 would feel to much like so many other fics, so I skipped to this. Slightly inspired by The Sleeper and the Spindle.

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"Father, I just want to be happy. I want my revenge." Regina had tears in her eyes as she turned to her father.

"I understand, my child," and he did, as much as he could. He knew that she didn't really want to kill him, her back was in a corner and she was prepared to lose everything. "Come, sit with me and have a cup of tea.

Regina let a tear drip down her cheek. "Alright, daddy." She sat next to him, aware that he was aware of the fate that awaited him after this last cup of tea together. She wanted one more untarnished moment with him. He handed her a hot cup and sat down across from him.

Henry watched as she took the first sip. He watched her eyes widen with realization. "Daddy, what have you done?" The cup fell from her hand, shattering on the stone floor.

"I'm sorry Regina." Tears shimmered in his eyes. "I can't let you cast this curse. I love you too much to see you lose yourself this way."

Regina watched him get up from his seat. She couldn't move. Her limbs were heavy with leaden death and her lungs seized. "I love you daddy." She whispered, knowing they were the last words she would ever speak to her father.

Henry let a sob escape his daughter's body to the vault where her lover's body was kept. She would be preserved here, forever the young vibrant woman he had raised. He brushed his fingers across her cheek before sealing the vault.

As the years passed henry lived his life in solitude, almost content in a small village in the woods. Regina's huntsman kept him company occasionally and every once in a while he went in to town to hear news of Queen Snow and King James.

It seemed that their daughter was blossoming into a young woman. Princess Emma was known to be an energetic girl with a talent for archery and swordsmanship. Every time he heard work of the princess it gave him a painfully nostalgic yearning for his own daughter. He missed her dearly, though he couldn't allow himself to feel regret for his actions.

The morning he woke up with the cough her thought nothing of it, but as it progressed into a wet hack he knew his time was short. He took a bag long stored in a chest at the foot of his bed and began his journey.

The dark castle loomed in the distance, undisturbed and abandoned since Regina had disappeared nearly 21 years ago. He made his way to where she was still in repose. He brushed his hand over her cheek as he had all those years ago. "I've missed you so much, Regina." He brushed a kiss over her forehead and an arc of rainbow colored energy shot from the spot where his lips touched her.

Regina took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Her father was looking at her from kneeling on the ground. He brought her into his arms. "Daddy?" Her throat was dry from disuse. She could feel the frail bones through her father's clothes.

"Regina,…"

"How long?" Being awake and the obvious aging of her father told her what he had done. She couldn't find it in herself to hate him for cursing her.

He swallowed, offering his daughter a skin of water, he spoke. "Over 20 years." He coughed again.

It was only at that cough that Regina realized how labored his breathing was. She caught him as he collapsed against her. Sliding off of the mausoleum slab she knelt to the floor with his head in her lap. He looked so pale against the black velvet of her dress. "Daddy, I love you."

"I'm so sorry about everything, Regina." He wheezed out the words.

"I forgive you, father." She felt tears welling in her eyes. He took one last breath and shuddered before falling still. Drops fell onto his pale face as she sobbed.

It was only when she got up that she realized her father had brought a large duffel with him. She opened it to find the clothing of a female peasant. This must have been a warning from him to disguise herself while figuring out the lay of the land. She couldn't feel her magic returning yet, so she took off the velvet dress and put on a pair of fitted leather breeches and a loose lavender tunic.

Making her way up to her old quarters, she found the castle in complete disarray. It was clear that her home had been vandalized at some point but the layer of dust over everything made it clear that this place was long abandoned. Her bedroom door was locked.

She felt a tingle under the surface of her skin. Waving her hand, the door flew inward. She smiled to herself so glad that her magic was returning with so much speed. Her chamber was undisturbed but dirty. It seemed that her locking spell had held even with her under the sleeping curse.

She waved her hands and the dust was gone. Sitting in front of the mirror she looked at her reflection. Her father had ensured that she wouldn't age by placing her in the crypt and she didn't feel as though time had passed even with the visual confirmation. She wiped off her makeup by hand and let her hair fall from it's meticulous up do. Her reflection looked younger than she could remember being even with the red rimmed eyes.

She left the castle and walked toward the nearest town, pulling a cloak over her shoulders to block the chill of the wind and block her face. The village she entered seemed to sprawl further than she remembered, but other than that it looked the same as it had in the years before the curse. Walking to the center of town she found a tavern to learn the local gossip.

Walking back to the castle, Regina tried to control her anger. Magic crackled at the tip of her fingertips when she thought of the current Queen and her happy life. She had to find a way to make her pay. Her anger drove her to the crypt for research into a new curse now that Rumplestiltskin's dark curse wasn't a viable option.

Gritty, sleep deprived eyes widened as she read over the curse. She scrambled to her feet and started gathering ingredients. Swiftly glancing at the book and mixing each ingredient she got her new curse ready. It was rage driving her now, she couldn't let Snow White get away with what she'd done. She poured the final ingredient into the bowl and let her magic fuel the reaction.

Purple smoke billowed out of the bowl, overwhelming the room and engulfing the castle before making it's way across the entire kingdom. The late hour ensured that very few people saw the curse coming, they simply fell deeper into their dreams.

Regina let the spell dissipate before she transported herself to the white castle. All of the guards had slumped at their posts, the Queen and King were without breath in their bed, and the Princess…she stared down at the blonde woman who had her mother's chin. The girl was beautiful; obviously the two idiots were good for something besides finding each other. Blonde curls rested on her pillow, one had drifted to cover a closed eye while she slept. Regina moved the curl before pulling her hand back as though burned. She refused to feel sympathy for the spawn of her enemy.

Her chamber never looked as welcoming as the moment she returned to her castle victorious. She changed from the peasants clothes to a sleep shirt and climbed into bed. Sleep didn't come. She sat in bed until well after the sun rose, willing her tired eyes to stay closed.

With sunrise came questions. She knew that after a night of no sleep with the magic she'd expended she should be exhausted but she wasn't really tired. She had been exhausted before casting the curse, why was it that she couldn't sleep now? The curse! She bolted from the bed, not caring that she only wore a white nightdress.

Stumbling down the stairs she came to a halt in front of the workbench. She read over the spell again.

"Damn it!" She yelled, throwing the book back on the table with so much force the spine creaked. She should have known better than to cast while as tired as she was. She had let her anger blind her into skipping over the fine print and now she was going to pay. This massive a sleeping curse had to have a sustainer, her, to keep watch over the victims. It wouldn't allow her to sleep unless she entered a dream that one of the curse victims was having.

She couldn't break it either. The only people she loved were dead so there was no true loves kiss to break the curse. By getting her revenge she had cursed herself into a solitary endless existence. She lay her head on the table and wept.

After the first week Regina had finally gotten the courage to enter another's dream. An old local villager who she didn't know, however he remembered her. His dream form was brave enough to attack her, nearly taking an arm before she was able to separate herself. She woke to find her arm bleeding. She berated herself, of course they would remember her, she needed to enter the minds of the young. But first she wanted to see how the Queen and her King fared.

So nightly Regina would share the dreams of her victims. Usually it was mundane, occasionally it was dangerous, and even less often she allowed herself the pleasure of another's company. Well really only one persons. The princess was the only person who, in her dreams, treated Regina as an equal. The peasants mostly ignored her because of her obvious noble upbringing, so it was a refreshing change to have a conversation.

Within a year's time it was solely Emma's dreams she was visiting. By year five she was in much too deep.

"Regina." Emma breathed, pulling her lover close to breathe in the scent of apples. "Why must you always leave so suddenly?"

Regina pressed a quick kiss to pale pink lips before speaking. "I've told you not to ask me about things like that, dear." She was beginning to regret having chosen the princess as her favorite. She didn't want to lie to her anymore.

"But Gina, I'm so alone when you leave me. There's nobody here besides me and the animals. I miss my parents and I miss the sound of people moving in the village." She pulled the brunette into the grass to lay with her. "I don't even know how long I've been here."

"I miss the noises too." Regina admitted. "I never realized how quiet it was without anybody moving. At least you share your space with the animals, in my world it's just me and the spiders." She curled into the blonde's side.

"Tell me a story. I just want to hear your voice for a while." Emma put a protective arm around the older woman.

Regina glanced up at Emma, wondering if she was asking Regina to finally tell her the whole truth. She sighed. "Once upon a time, a long time ago there was a girl…" Regina let the truth wind through the air. By the time she got to the end Emma had been silent for a great many minutes.

Emma swallowed, she hadn't really expected the whole story in one go. She knew that something was wrong, but the twisted perception of time didn't allow her to realize the depth of the wrongness. "You cursed me?" She asked in a small voice.

Regina pulled away, sitting up and curling in on herself. "I cursed everyone." She whispered. This was perhaps the first time she was truly ashamed of her actions.

"So break the curse, I'll make sure my parents don't hurt you."

"I can't…" Regina's morose answer trailed off as she swung her head to meet Emma's eyes. "Why would you do that after I told you the truth?"

Emma offered her a small smile. "My mother told me of a time where she loved you, a time where you were a strong woman in love with a stable boy. I know you've done bad things, but you've obviously changed." She sat up and put a hand on Regina's shoulder.

"You knew didn't you?" She hated being weak but she leaned into the touch.

"I knew who you were the first time I met you. There is a royal painting of you hanging in your old rooms at the palace." She teased lightly, drawing a small smile from her lover. "How often do you come to me?"

The change in subject wiped the smile away. "Far too often. I should really stop torturing the both of us with this thing that can never be. There is no way for me to break the curse and I think I'm too scared to try to find a way."

Emma cringed. "You've been looking for a way to reverse it this whole time, haven't you?" The brunette nodded. "I would rather spend an eternity like this than have you never come to me again. Get the thought of not coming back out of your head." She kissed full lips.

"If I don't come back you won't notice the passage of time…" Emma kissed her again to silence her. Regina let herself be pulled back to the soft grass. She let Emma kiss a jagged line down her neck and over her chest before she felt herself return to her own body.

Regina looked down at the sleeping blond. There was always a time limit to her dream walking and sometimes the return to reality happened at the most inopportune times. The sun was peeking it's way through the east windows. She looked down at Emma again. "I think you've healed me, dear."

She sat up in the bed, making sure to cover Emma completely as she stood. "I might just have fallen in love with you." She whispered, leaning over to drop a kiss to warm lips. A burst of magic shot through the air. Regina stepped back in shock as Emma sat up.

"Gina?" Emma looked at the slightly bedraggled woman standing to the side of her bed, her bed! She was finally awake.

Regina couldn't breathe. It was one thing to make a promise in a dream world you were never going to escape from and quite another to actually make good on it in the real world. She caught the blonde projectile that launched at her.

Emma kissed Regina with all the passion she could muster. The tension left the brunette's body as the kiss went on and on. "I promised." She whispered against kiss swollen lips.

For the first time since she was a teenager Regina felt as though life were on track. She kissed Emma back.


End file.
